Yesterday, Homey, myself and Darrin Ruhnau (RV-.5X16) had the honor of providing a 3 ship missing man formation for a unique individual and circumstance. One which I consider myself extremely lucky to have done. It was organized by a friend of mine who owns "the" WilgaBeast (google it).
Link to story here: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=270452 ... th-pacific
I began to think last night of how it transpired that I was able to partake in this most honorable of ceremonies, and without waxing too fecalawfulcal (means bullshit...ish...) I thought there might be an encouragement lesson here.
I owe this experience to a series of events starting with the 50th anniversary celebration and the work the Lee Walton put into getting us a little time at OSH to showcase the plane. The started the ball rolling with some formation clinics hosted by Tony Ginn, Howard and Elaine Ginn, and Homey up here in Salt Lake Yootah. These were administered, coached, encouraged, cajoled, bandaged and facilitated by Jim Grahn (Cubes) and attended by not only the experienced formation pilots, but also a few of us less experienced ones of needed help, who accepted the open invitations via this form to attend (me, Rich Brazell, and "The Man With Two First Names" Junkins) The formation clinics were put on with the goal of getting a routine down to perform at OSH and the side benefit for those of us lesser mortals who showed was to take advantage of the opportunity to further our flying skills with the four formation pilots, which we all did.
Had I not participated in these events, I never would have gained the knowledge and skills necessary to have been able to partake in the events of yesterday (safely). Now, having said that, I know not everyone can do as I do in life, but get out there, fly and learn. I have learned some things from my "circle of influence" in the local flying community no doubt, but they pale in comparison to what I have learned in the Thorp T-18 community.
Here is a pic just at the point of the overhead pitchup and turn to the west - we put the "piggy in the middle" thinking that was the best visual from the ground. Darren RV-.5X16 is an ex F-15 driver and a good stick. His son (a university physics student) was in the plane and thought the (formation) flight was awesome!!! The flight was well briefed by Homey and we were much appreciated by all. An extremely rewarding experience.
As Tony Ginn says...........Fly Safe, Fly Fast, Fly Thorps!!
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